Elemental HERO

The Elemental Hero series are a set of Warrior-Type monsters, with few exceptions, varying in attribute most frequently used by Jaden Yuki, and briefly by Aster Phoenix in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. It is alleged that the Elemental Heroes draw inspiration from American super heroes, although the cards appearing in the manga generally resemble Japanese super heroes. The artwork and theme behind each monster in the archetype stems from its attribute, such as a Fire Attribute Hero monster depicting a pyromantic Superhero.

The general goal of the archetype is for various Hero monsters to be fused together to make powerful Elemental Hero Fusion Monsters.

Due to it being used by the main character of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Gx series, Elemental Heroes are one of the most supported Archetypes in the OCG and TCG, if not the most supported. Most of the individual non-fusion Elemental Hero Normal monsters have at least one support card specific to that monster. They can be further supplemented by common Warrior Support Cards such as Reinforcement of the Army. Elemental Heroes are also excessively supported by a plethora of Spell and Trap Cards specifically attuned to their archetype. However, many of these are situational and outclassed by standard Staples

In the later Yu-Gi-Oh! Gx seasons, Elemental HERO Neos and its supporting archetype Neo-Spacians were used in favor of the aforementioned variant of Heroes. These Heroes abandoned traditional Fusion Summoning in favor of a new type of fusion known as Contact Fusion, where two monsters face up on the field return to the deck to special summon a Fusion monster. However, these are not supported as well as traditional Elemental Heroes.

Further support is granted to the Archetype through various promotional cards introduced in the Manga, in the form of two sub-archetypes: Vision Heroes and Masked Heroes. Vision Heroes Fusion Monsters require any combination of Heroes for summon, and generally have powerful effects which can end games. Masked Heroes, on the other hand, depict Hero monsters changing masks to become a new superhero. Correlating with this depiction, Masked Heroes are summoned through Mask Change, which sends one Hero monster to the graveyard to summon its Masked Hero counterpart, effectively "switching masks".

Additionally, the manga introduced a new array of Elemental Heroes are introduced in the manga, whose effects and artwork drastically vary from the original set depicted in the Anime. Unlike their anime counterparts, these manga Elemental Heroes, often called "Omni-Heroes", consisted of no Normal Monsters. Furthermore, their Fusion Monsters had a different requirement than their anime counterparts, with materials requiring one of any Elemental Hero monster fused with any monster of the respective Attribute. Along with these drastic differences in effect, these Omni-Heroes also took a different direction in their artwork, discarding the traditional American superhero appearance for a more Japanese outlook on Heroes, where each Hero appeared to be the direct elemental embodiment of its respective attribute..

Elemental Hero Fusion Monsters are now much more limited compared to their initial release. Previously, there was no limit on the number of monsters that could be stored in the Fusion Deck, but as of August 2008, with the renaming of Fusion Deck to Extra Deck, you are now limited to a maximum of 15 cards in the Extra Deck. Elemental Hero Deck users must now be very selective about which monsters they plan to Fusion Summon, instead of simply including all possible Elemental Hero Fusion Monsters in their Extra Deck, especially since there are over 15 different Elemental Hero Fusion Monsters to choose from. Because of this, the competitive scene has discarded the traditional Elemental Heroes in favor of the "Omni-Heroes", whose fusion require more generic combinations.

Through cards given to the deck within the Manga, the deck is granted a competitive spark, allowing it to compete with various other decks within the metagame. Several different variations of Heroes are used by various competitive players, including, bubblebeat, Light Gemini Stun/Light Hero Beat, and Gate Heroes

Although the way the deck is played varies between builds, the general consensus in a majority of the Competitive Hero Builds is to not use Fusion cards such as Polymerization in favor of Miracle Fusion. Additionally, despite the different competitive builds often drastically differing in play-style, the Monster line-up used is generally the same, with the Spell and Trap line-up nearly identical. However, the slight differences are enough to heavily shift the deck into a different direction.

This card is treated as a Normal Monster while face-up on the field or in the Graveyard. While this card is face-up on the field, you can Normal Summon it to have it become an Effect Monster with this effect. This face-up card's name becomes "Elemental HERO Neos".

Neos Alius is usually maxed out on all competitive HERO builds. It has received this status due to it having the highest ATK out of all non-fusion HERO monsters. Additionally, it has a LIGHT attribute, causing it to be the most common target for the fusion summon of Elemental HERO The Shining. Its effect is rarely used, and Neos Alius is never Gemini Summoned unless the player uses a variant based on Elemental HERO Neos, or is looking to have a condition for a card like Torrential Tribute to activate.

When this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can activate 1 of these effects; You can destroy Spell/Trap Cards on the field, up to the number of other "HERO" monsters you control. Add 1 "HERO" monster from your Deck to your hand.

Due to its ability to search ANY HERO monster from the deck, the maximum amount of copies of Stratos allowed by the banlist is used in every competitive HERO variant, even Destiny HEROes. Stratos is a mandatory card in every HERO build, as its effect is too useful.

Like E - Emergency Call, Reinforcement of the Army (Often abreviated to rota by the community), is a powerful search card that can add anything in a HERO deck. Similar to Stratos, it should be used in the maximum of legal copies, as its effect is too useful.

Banish, from your side of the field or your Graveyard, the Fusion Material Monsters that are listed on an "Elemental HERO" Fusion Monster Card, then Special Summon that Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck. (This Special Summon is treated as a Fusion Summon.)

In terms of Card Advantage, Miracle Fusion is a one-for-one, costing the player one card in their hand in exchange for one, powerful monster who can continue to plus. Because of this, Miracle Fusion is the favored method of Fusion in all HERO builds. Additionally, Miracle Fusion synergizes well with Elemental HERO The Shining.

Discard 1 card; send, from either side of the field to the Graveyard, Fusion Material Monsters that are listed on a Fusion Monster Card, then Special Summon that monster from your Extra Deck. (This Special Summon is treated as a Fusion Summon.) Spells, Traps, and card effects cannot be activated in response to this card's activation.

First introduced as an incredibly powerful fusion card in the Anime, Super Polymerization lives up to supposed power, being a powerful "out" to any problem monsters the deck has. Because no cards can be chained in response to Super Polymerization, it can be used to disrupt decks by using a key component of the opponent's combos for a fusion. Additionally, being a quick-play spell card gives it even more power, allowing it to be chained to anything to cause any possible cards used previously by the opponent to be wasted. However, it is a -1 in Card Advantage, so it may not be favored by some players. The general consensus, however, is to use this, even if it is merely in the side deck.

1 "Elemental HERO" monster + 1 LIGHT monster: Must be Fusion Summoned and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. This card gains 300 ATK for each of your banished "Elemental HERO" monsters. When this card is sent from the field to the Graveyard: You can target up to 2 of your banished "Elemental HERO" monsters; add those targets to your hand.

One of the most powerful fusion monsters in the deck, The Shining is always maxed out, as its easy accessability combined with its powerful recycling effect cause it to be the go-to fusion. The Shining's recycling effect allows itself to +1 when it is sent to the graveyard, as well as giving the player additional monsters to replace The Shining with. Through this single effect, The Shining is the most reliable fusion for all of the competitive HERO variants, as they all use Miracle Fusion and the banish zone.

1 "HERO" monster + 1 WATER monster: Must be Fusion Summoned and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. This card gains 500 ATK for each face-up WATER monster on the field, except "Elemental HERO Absolute Zero". When this card leaves the field: Destroy all monsters your opponent controls.

Absolute Zero has always been a terrifying force, even when it was initially released, with decks being built specifically around him. This is justified by his powerful game-changing effect, which wipes the opponent's field if Absolute Zero leaves through any means.. As such, there are no ways to get rid of Absolute Zero without its effect going off and nuking the opponent's monster zone, forcing the opponent to carefully play around it to minimize its damage. In Gemini Stun, Absolute Zero is rarely used. Nonetheless, it is still used in the Extra deck of a Gemini Stun deck, as possible targets for Absolute Zero exist through Super Polymerization. In the other HERO variants, Absolute Zero is abused midgame to lategame due to his ability to turn the game around or otherwise punish the opponent and push offensively.

1 "Elemental HERO" monster + 1 WIND monster Must be Fusion Summoned and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. When this card is Fusion Summoned: Halve the ATK and DEF of all face-up monsters your opponent controls.

1 "Elemental HERO" monster + 1 EARTH Monster This monster cannot be Special Summoned except by Fusion Summon. When this card is Fusion Summoned, select 1 face-up monster your opponent controls. Until the end of this turn, that monster's ATK is halved and this card gains the same amount of ATK.

2 Level 4 Warrior-Type monsters Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to target 1 face-up "Ninja" monster you control; this turn, that monster can attack twice during each Battle Phase.

A powerful card that can be used to push offensively, Blade Armor Ninja is especially a key component in Bubblebeat, but is still used in all other variants due to its ability to end games.

Following the release of Blade Armor Ninja, Bubblebeat is a variant of Heroes, which was popularized by Andres Ochoa's featured deck. Bubblebeat is an extremely aggressive variant of Heroes that, as its name suggests, revolves around Elemental HERO Bubbleman. The deck discards traditional Fusion Summons in favor of aggressive Xyz plays with Bubbleman to summon multiple copies of Blade Armor Ninja in a single turn, while "stunning" the opponent with a large array of traps. The fusions in the deck are still present, but are a supplement to the aggressive strategies in the deck, and only are summoned with Miracle Fusion, with the primary target being Elemental HERO The Shining.

The most common play of the deck is to set a majority of its hand, before summoning Stratos to add Bubbleman to the player's hand, which is then special summoned to make Blade Armor Ninja. To go even further, the player can also set multiple copies of searching Spell cards such as E - Emergency Call and Reinforcement of the Army to allow for the special summoning of multiple Bubblemans to create multiple Blade Armor Ninja, which can then aggressively OTK the opponent.

However, one of the problems with this deck is its poor late-game ability, as it uses an incredibly minimal monster lineup (Often exactly 7 monsters). As such, the deck can quickly run out of monsters in the late-game.

Shifting into a different direction from Bubblebeat, Gemini Stun is a HERO variant that uses a more defensive playstyle. Nonetheless, it uses several elements of Bubblebeat in its design. The goal of the deck is, as its name suggests, to "Stun" the opponent with a large array of traps, while beating them down with large beaters such as Elemental HERO Neos Alius. What differs it from all of the other competitive HERO builds, who also have Stun elements mixed with beaters such as Alius, is that it uses cards such as Skill Drain and Thunder King Rai-Oh to shut down the opponent.

Generally, most games with Gemini Stun involve the player summoning a single monster, and continuously attacking the opponent with it while "Stunning" the opponent with the large array of trap cards. For the most part, the player should only summon additional monsters when going for game, or to replace the first monster. Miracle Fusion is to be used as an "out" to monsters the deck can't handle, going for game, or to replace the single monster the player relies on. Elemental HERO The Shining is your primary, and usually only target to be summoned with Miracle Fusion. Additional pressure is applied to the opponent through the usage of Skill Drain.

However, one of the issues with this deck is its lack of aggression, causing it to rely on a large array of traps to slow the opponent down to the same pace as the deck. Furthermore, its lack of aggression makes it the only build that can't OTK.

The general playstyle between Bubblebeat and Gemini Stun are nearly identical, but the options which the deck grant either shift between having more capability to aggressively attack the opponent or to defensively shut down the opponent.

The third competitively viable build, Gate HEROes, is the only one of the trio to focus on Fusion Summoning. Unfortunately, this build has fallen out of favor, and has no YCS tops to back up its viability. Nonetheless, it is still a solid deck with explosive power equal to that of Bubblebeat and versatility unmatched by either of the two HERO builds.

As its name may suggest, the variant is built around the use of Fusion Gate to summon a myriad of Fusions. However, the primary targets are generally Elemental HERO The Shining and Elemental HERO Absolute Zero due to their powerful effects when they leave the field. Like the other two decks in the trio, Gate HEROes uses a similar monster line-up, albeit with a few more monsters that the other two builds discard in favor of minimalism.

A common strategy in the deck is to summon Elemental HERO The Shining, and pressure your opponent with it until it is destroyed. When Shining is destroyed, it would add back the two HEROes used for its summon, which could then be used again immediately for a second Shining with Fusion Gate.

However, this deck suffers from a crippling weakness, which is made even more apparent through the unlimiting of Mystical Space Typhoon and the unbanning of Heavy Storm. The deck relies heavily on its field spell, Fusion Gate. Without its field spell, the deck ceases to function. Additionally, the deck relies heavily on searching, so cards such as Thunder-King Rai-Oh will give the deck a large amount of trouble. Furthermore, Bottomless Trap Hole and Dimensional Prison, two traps commonly sided against HEROes, will prevent Elemental HERO The Shining from using its effect, preventing the deck from recycling the few HERO monsters it has.

Elemental HERO Neos Alius has the highest attack among the level 4 or lower HEROes without any consequences.

The Omni-Heroes have more powerful effects

Variants based on the non-vanilla HEROes are generally more consistent, as each card can stand sufficiently well on its own without much support.

Its impossible and silly to use several different HERO fusions to prepare for every little combination. The blanket combination of one HERO monster and one monster of its respective attribute allows for the Extra Deck to be compacted less, and to allow for a larger array of actual fusions.

Why isn't x spell/trap card used?

The HERO archetype is the most supported archetype. Unfortunately, that also means that the archetype receives a lot of "trash cards", which are completely outclassed by less situational or otherwise better cards. This will apply to a majority of HERO support Spell/Trap cards that aren't used in the mainstream, but there are posisbly cards which just haven't been noticed by the competitive scene.

Why aren't Evil HEROes used?

There are builds that use Evil HEROes, but among the competitive scene, they are discarded for the same reason "Classic" fusions and normal monsters were. The omni-heroes are better. Nonetheless, Evil HERO builds can be made.

In the TCG competitive scene, Card Advantage is a large factor to be considered in decks. However, the effects of Polymerization cause the deck to -2 theoretically. Because of this Miracle Fusion is used over Polymerization for fusion summons, as it is a neutral "0" in card advantage, which can lead to additional plusses. Furthermore, due to it banishing monsters for its fusion summon, Miracle Fusion synergises well with Elemental HERO The Shining.

However, it is possible for a "purist" build using Polymerization and the Vanilla HEROes to be built. However, such a build has no competitive viability due to the minusing mechanics of Polymerization.